Nixon polling for swing vote

By Gordon Edes and Bob Hohler, Globe Staff, 10/1/2003

OAKLAND, Calif. -- When the session ended, and Trot Nixon had taken enough swings against Brandon Lyon, the bat was tossed aside and the helmet went flying.

"I know I put stress on myself, trying to pick up a bat and be in midseason form," Nixon said after calming down yesterday.

It's not that easy, not when you've missed three weeks with a strained left calf muscle. Nixon was testing his leg in a session of live batting practice, one he hoped would produce better results than it did in advance of tonight's Game 1 against the Oakland A's.

Nixon will be on the playoff roster, but will he be in the lineup? Grady Little said he was reserving judgment, but it may be revealing that while team trainers, a couple of coaches, and Dr. Bill Morgan watched Nixon's session, Little wasn't behind the cage. Nixon has gone to extra lengths to make certain his leg would be OK; his concern was more about the rust in his swing than any pain in his leg.

"I feel fine," he said. "It's just my timing that's off at the plate. I'm a timing person. We'll see what Grady wants to do tomorrow. If I'm hurting the team, I'll sit myself down, but that would be a very difficult choice for myself."

Nixon acknowledged he may have reinjured himself during the home plate celebration after David Ortiz's walkoff home run last Tuesday.

"Nobody really knows -- the trainers can't say," Nixon said. "I might have hurt it jumping up and down, but we don't know."

One Sox official involved in the decision process said he expected Nixon to be in the lineup. If not, Gabe Kapler would most likely start in his place.

Suppan, Jones are out

With Nixon's ability to play the field questionable, the Sox have decided to go with 10 pitchers instead of 11, making room for Bronson Arroyo and leaving off Jeff Suppan, Todd Jones, Ramiro Mendoza, and Lyon. That will allow the Sox to carry both David McCarty and Adrian Brown, with Andy Abad and Bill Haselman the odd men out among the position players.

The Sox need the extra outfielder because Nixon may be limited to hitting, at least to start the series. Brown is a highly skilled outfielder and McCarty can provide some righthanded pop off the bench, as well as sub at either outfield corner or first base. The other reserves are Kapler, Doug Mirabelli, Damian Jackson, and Lou Merloni.

The final roster will give the Sox four starters -- Pedro Martinez, Tim Wakefield, Derek Lowe, and John Burkett -- and a bullpen consisting of Arroyo, Alan Embree, Byung Hyun Kim, Mike Timlin, Scott Williamson, and Scott Sauerbeck.

The Sox plan to keep around players who do not make the roster, in case they need them for the ALCS or World Series. As Little noted, "Someone might get hurt in the shower, you never know."

Barb from the Boss

Yankees owner George Steinbrenner was quoted in yesterday's USA Today saying that his star shortstop, Derek Jeter, would not have left his team as Nomar Garciaparra did Sunday to fly to Columbus, Ohio, for a Women's World Cup match involving the US team on which his fiancee, Mia Hamm, is the marquee player.

"Jeter would not have left his team," Steinbrenner told columnist Ian O'Connor. "But that's not a criticism of Garciaparra. If I had a fiancee who looked and played like Mia Hamm, I would've done the same thing."

Steinbrenner also was asked whether it surprised him that Bill Mueller was not in the Sox starting lineup Sunday with the batting title still to be decided and Jeter a prime contender.

"You want to know the truth?" Steinbrenner said. "No, it didn't. Tampa played them tough, and to lay out a guy like that, well, I'm not sure Ted Williams would have done that."

Asked about the comments, Sox CEO Larry Lucchino said, "I don't care to engage George and the Yankees in anything except what happens on the field. I'm not going to get caught up in any sideshow or diversion. We have things to worry about, and those things are on the field. Let George be George. We'll move on."

Garciaparra laughed about the crack.

"I had the support of the team," he said. "It was nice they let me go. That was great. They came to me. They said, `We've clinched, we'd like you to have a chance to go to a game.' I said, `Really?' I went to all my teammates and brought it up to them, and they all said, `We understand. Go do it.' They were all great."

Asked if having a couple of days off had rejuvenated him after playing 156 games this season, Garciaparra said, "I played a lot of games, but right now everybody is tired, fatigued, whatever."

Lucchino said the idea for Garciaparra's trip may have originated with fellow owner Tom Werner.

"Tom Werner originally raised it with me," he said. "He said something about Nomar going to see Mia play on the last day. We felt that really fell properly within Grady's jurisdiction, and deferred to him."

Late word on slugger

Manny Ramirez, who was permitted to miss the final game of the regular season to return home to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., reported late to the official workout yesterday. The Sox already had stretched and begun batting practice when he arrived. Little said Ramirez missed the team bus at the hotel in San Francisco. "It's a bad place to miss the bus unless you know the BART," said Little, referring to the subway system . . . An official with Major League Baseball said Martinez would not be fined for declining to participate in the formal interview session for the starting pitchers. He could be fined, however, if he refuses to participate during the AL Championship Series or World Series. "My idea would be for him to come in here and talk, like most starting pitchers do," Little said. "But Pedro is Pedro, and he makes the ultimate decision." Echoed general manager Theo Epstein, "In a perfect world, he'd talk. But our first concern is that a player does what he needs to do to be ready to play."

Tentative times

Preliminary word on the remaining schedule was that Game 3 at Fenway could be Saturday at 7:30 p.m., Game 4 Sunday at 1 p.m. or 5 p.m., and Game 5 Monday at 1 p.m. . . . The Sox had a team dinner at Morton's in San Francisco Monday night. Every member of the organization who was in town attended, though the scouts who were assigned to track the Yankees and Twins in New York departed early to catch a red-eye. Asked who picked up the tab, Little said, "I think ultimately it will go to [owner] John Henry." . . . Online sales for Sox tickets have prompted complaints about problems with the system and unusually long waits. A Sox spokesman attributed the trouble to extremely high volume.